All Ohioans Should Be Able to Vote Early

The campaigns of President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney are engaged in a fierce battle in Ohio, knowing full well that it is one of the critical battleground states that could determine who wins in November.

This battle is being waged on television, radio, on the ground, and now in the courts after the Obama campaign sued the state, hoping it will open early voting for all residents of the state and not just members of the military.

The Republican-led Ohio legislature first kicked off their voter suppression efforts last year when they passed an onerous bill that they said was about voter protection. It was such a fraud that more than 300,000 Ohio residents signed a petition to have the measure placed on the statewide ballot this November.

Clearly not wanting to be embarrassed by the electorate, the Ohio legislature revoked everything in the bill, except the provision allowing only members of the military to vote three days before the election.

For years, Ohio residents were able to vote the Saturday, Sunday and Monday before the election. But for some reason, the GOP-controlled legislature felt that wasn't a good idea and decided to end the practice.

Now why in the world would anyone choose to restrict residents from voting? Doesn't it make sense to find more ways for Americans to vote? In 2008, nearly 100,000 Ohio residents voted during this period. Anyone with a brain would call that a success.

Some critics say the ban was limited to specifically targeting Black churches, preventing them from voting en masse on the weekend before the election. The Ohio GOP understands that such voters are overwhelmingly going to cast ballots for President Obama, so why not shave off a few thousand votes in what is expected to be a very close election?

As a result, the Obama campaign sued Ohio, saying all residents should be able to vote early, and not just those in the military.

The Romney camp has chastised Obama, saying he doesn't want military members to vote early.

This isn't a close one. Romney, his campaign team and lawyers are flat out lying, and he knows it.

The length to which the GOP has gone nationwide to suppress turnout in November is shameful.

Last week, testimony ended in a lawsuit in Pennsylvania over their voter suppression law. The state's case was so pathetic that the Pennsylvania secretary of state, who is charged with overseeing voting, admitted on the stand that she didn't even read the bill. The state also admitted they had no evidence of voter fraud in Pennsylvania, even though that was the reason they cited for passing the law.

The Romney camp shouldn't be wasting time attacking the Obama team for wanting to return early voting before the election for all voters. In a true spirit of bipartisanship, they should petition the court to invalidate the Ohio law and let all residents of the state vote the three days before the election.

There is no comprehensible reason any conservative or Republican should support this limited law. For the last two years, I've been a vocal opponent of these voter suppression efforts, and the whole time, I've asked my conservative and Republican friends to show me one example — just one! — of their ideological buddies pushing an effort to actually expand voting rights. I'm still waiting.

Today, August 6, marks the 47th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act, a bill that should have never had to be made law had America fully recognized African Americans as true citizens. It has been a monumental success, but now that we're in the 21st century, those opposed to its tough measures want it repealed, giving them a shot to enact more shameful bills to suppress voting.

Every American, regardless of party affiliation, should call out the Ohio GOP for their pitiful effort to keep law-abiding residents from casting a ballot.

Voting is not a privilege. It's a right. And any time any elected official seeks to undermine that right, they should call the effort exactly what it is: un-American.

Roland S. Martin is an award-winning CNN analyst and author of the book "The First: President Barack Obama's Road to the White House as Originally Reported by Roland S. Martin." Please visit his website at RolandSMartin.com. To find out more about Roland S. Martin and read his past columns, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.